Sonos App controls no longer appear on your lock screen

After updating to 9.0 on iOS, I am getting the message "Sonos App controls no longer appear on your lock screen" on all my updated devices. The lock screen controls stopped working on all my controllers with above message.
I do not have any other music player running nor I have any sort of voice over configured. Settings for the app are correct with both hardware volume control and lock screen controls enabled on all devices.

221 replies

As already said by the Sonos Community this « downgrade » 9.0 (let’s name it so) is a huge step back in term of ergonomy ! Happy owner of 3 sonos products till now i hope also a 9.1 update asap to correct this problem. How can we use out favorite speaker without a décent UI.

The Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos, we made the decision to remove the functionality in households that use AirPlay.

And nobody on the team expected this reaction? You should be aware you have tons of customers with older hardware.

...and if turning off AirPlay on the non-Sonos devices in your home isn't an option...

I appreciate your feedback, but I can hardly believe this was a serious suggestion.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'll get it to the team. You may have heard this already, but iOS does not natively provide a way to control devices on your home network from the lock screen in iOS, the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself. Because of this, the Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos.

You can bring back the lock screen on Sonos by turning off AirPlay on any devices in your home that aren't Sonos devices, which does work for many households. But if AirPlay is used in your home, this might not be an option.

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

I do not have any AirPlay devices. Despite this fact, I cannot get the controls back on the lock screen. Restart Controller not working. Turning off Bluetooth not working. Voiceover is disabled. What am I doing wrong? I used lock screen Sonos controls MULTIPLE TIMES EVERY DAY. It was arguably the MOST USED FEATURE of the Sonos app. Idiots.

I was literally in the final stage of convincing my parents to kit out their retirement home with a Sonos whole home system (think £££) and after a few months playing with some of my spare speakers and getting them used to it - you go and do this.... I’m sorry to say you just lost some potential customers there with a really dumb move.

I hope you listen to the forums and don’t end up destroying your own reputation further.

I do not have any AirPlay devices. Despite this fact, I cannot get the controls back on the lock screen.
An Airport Express or similar device would also count as an AirPlay device. If you open up AirPlay from one of your apps, does anything on the network show up?

Mark good posts by pressing the like button, and select the best answer on questions you've asked to help others find solutions.

You may have heard this already, but iOS does not natively provide a way to control devices on your home network from the lock screen in iOS, the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself. Because of this, the Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos.

Well, how do Spotify do it? Using Spotify connect, Spotify plays through Sonos Speakers. And you get the lockscreen controls after the Sonos 9.0 upgrade and with airplay 2 devices, like apple TV gen 4, running. Spotify is NOT playing on the device itself. You can remove spotify from memory, take the iPod to another location, even destroy it if you want, and Spotify continues playing through the Sonos Speakers. So your statement "the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself" is incorrect. If we can have the lockscreen control when using Spotify connect with airplay enabled devices on the network, then why we have it when using the Sonos app? Perhaps the Sonos developers should ask Spotify how they do it.

You may have heard this already, but iOS does not natively provide a way to control devices on your home network from the lock screen in iOS, the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself. Because of this, the Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos.

Well, how do Spotify do it? Using Spotify connect, Spotify plays through Sonos Speakers. And you get the lockscreen controls after the Sonos 9.0 upgrade and with airplay 2 devices, like apple TV gen 4, running. Spotify is NOT playing on the device itself. You can remove spotify from memory, take the iPod to another location, even destroy it if you want, and Spotify continues playing through the Sonos Speakers. So your statement "the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself" is incorrect. If we can have the lockscreen control when using Spotify connect with airplay enabled devices on the network, then why we have it when using the Sonos app? Perhaps the Sonos developers should ask Spotify how they do it.Well said! My thoughts exactly. BS cop out by SONOS who charge like wounded bulls for their hardware albeit great quality, then expect us to deal with sub standard software and a bucket load of excuses.

This is unfortunate. I have 2 Apple TVs (4th gen), and I use AirPlay on them from time to time. So disabling this is not an option (and it’s silly and insulting to offer this as a workaround just to get the lock screen back). I have no interest or desire in acquiring any AirPlay 2 devices. But I want the lock screen feature to continue working. It astonishes me that vital functionality would be tossed out like this. I was considering getting a Beam (I guess that is an AirPlay 2 device), but all future Sonos purchases are now on indefinite hold. It’s too bad Sonos feels the need to be everything to everybody. I get why Sonos might feel this way. But I fear that integrating with everything might actually be detrimental and ultimately lead to Sonos’ demise. Getting too cozy with Apple technology never seems to end well. My Sonos experience is being dumbed down for functionality I don’t even want.

From what's been said, Sonos was likely using a capability that Apple didn't commit to support to provide the lock screen controls, and the Apple ecosystem does not allow lock screen controls for devices not playing on the device. Sonos was using a workaround to give us the capability, and adding Airplay to Sonos took that API hook for Airplay. The community has been complaining about Airplay for months, then blaming Sonos when Apple delayed releasing it, and they released it pretty damned once it was available from Apple. Sonos had to decided between two things - getting rid of a feature that was based upon undocumented Apple API hooks, meaning any update from Apple could have killed it, or saying, sorry we can't give you something because it will break this feature. They looked at customer demands and surveys, and likely this community. They made a decision, and some people don't like it.

Now, Sonos probably should never have used the undocumented interface (if that's what happened). That set this up to happen at any point in the future that Apple changed something.

I'm not a rabid defender of Sonos, I've criticized them when it's been due, but this is a rock and a hard place issue - which set of customers to tick off?

I do not have any AirPlay devices. Despite this fact, I cannot get the controls back on the lock screen.
An Airport Express or similar device would also count as an AirPlay device. If you open up AirPlay from one of your apps, does anything on the network show up?

I have nothing showing and I don’t use AirPlay. Still can’t get the lock controls back? Shambles.

“Which set of customers to tick off”? If, when releasing a product update, that is a question you really have to consider, then there’s something fundamentally wrong with your product strategy.

I, for one, have not been clamoring for AirPlay support. I thought I was buying into the Sonos ecosystem, not into something that would be intimately tied to Apple’s (and Amazon’s, and eventually Google’s), and at the expense of the Sonos experience.

Sonos’ product strategy is now a bloody mess. If you have this, then you can do this but not that, and if you have this, then this is possible but only if this is enabled. But if you were used to this, it’s now gone unless you do this untenable thing to a completely different product.

Same here. I do not use AirPlay at all. My Pioneer Elite receiver has it built in so I had to take it off my network so it doesn’t broadcast AirPlay. I have a Logitech RF remote so I can control the receiver from a remote area but it would be nice to have it networked for all of the features that use the internet.

I suspect this an Apple permission thing BUT can’t Sonos just give us the option to turn OFF AirPlay in our Sonos system???

My Sonos Connect runs through an AV Receiver which has AirPlay built into it - this cannot be switched off.

This situation should not have occurred and the contempt that Sonos have shown to users by dismissing their concerns is worrying. They have withdrawn a key feature.

What’s next? Remove the ability to connect to a NAS? “Oh yeah, we decided to remove that feature - get over it”

I have 2 Sonos Play:1 speakers in the garage. As most people, if a favorite song starts to play, I raise the volume. Previously, I did this by just just rolling the crown on my Apple Watch. It didn't matter if I was washing the car or trying to fix the lawn mower with greasy hands. Now, I have to fish my phone out of my pocket but first either drying or cleaning my hands.

I know this might not seem like a big problem but sometimes you miss the little things.

Sonos...please make things simple again! Get a little customer feedback BEFORE taking away options from the application. Didn't you learn anything from the Dark Mode deletion just a few months ago?

Fingers crossed that you do right and fix this quickly. Customers remember this sort of thing and will take it into account when it comes time to upgrade/add to their audio system or recommending one to friends and family. There is a lot of competition out there.

Sonos. As others have stated, multi-device audio control from multi-user devices on the lock screen was a HUGE differentiator for Sonos. Removing it removes one of the key benefits of Sonos. (Likely why Apple is making it difficult!). Other apps seem to have found a workaround and you need to as well. Ideally let users choose whether or not to enable airplay support. As so many have stated. We bought Sonos because of airplay deficiencies. Not a good plan to make Sonos more like Airplay!!!

I have a work around for this. While I’m not impressed by the roll out and got very confused with ‘turn Airplay’ off comments as I have Mac’s, Apple TV’s, Sky Q all with airplay .... anyway .... I have changed from playing music using the Sonos app to playing music on the Spoitify app and then selecting the speaker to use. I can now use my iPhone hard buttons from the lock screen and my Apple Watch to change music and the crown to control the volume. I know this won’t be the best solution for everybody my at least it will work for some and I know my phone is now playing the music which again is not great. I do hope this changes back to how it was AND allow airplay2 as I’m sure there is a thread where people wanted this.

Sonos you really need to fix this. You cant give new products/futures that affect futures you have allready implemented and are functioning vel. Remember that a large portion of your customers have products from you that are not airplay 2 compatible. You should make it possible to turn off the airplay 2 functionality inn your app and devices and not the other way around. We should not have to disable airplay 1/2 on our other devices for lockscreen controls to come back. This is your problem and you need to fix it not us. If i dont use airplay on sonos i should be able to disable it so that i get the true sonos experiance that you talk about and want oss to have. I think you should talk to spotify about how they do there lockscreen controls that functions or talk directly with apple and find a solution together så that people get there lockscreen controls back and apple watch controls back. You should implement apple watch control inn your app regardless. Spotify has it natively supported in there ios app.
Airplay 1/2 should be an extra function i should be able to disable if i want to. You need to think of your properatary sonos system first that functions extreamly well and airplay that is apples secound.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'll get it to the team. You may have heard this already, but iOS does not natively provide a way to control devices on your home network from the lock screen in iOS, the controls are only available for audio being played on the device itself. Because of this, the Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos.

@Ryan S - Respectfully, this completely misses the point of the frustration expressed here. What I believe we're saying is AirPlay is NOT a primary use case for us (and likely a silent majority of Sonos customers). You've decided to favor AirPlay support over usability and critical functionality. I would bet the customer surveys to gauge desire for adding AirPlay support didn't ask if adding it would come at this price.

We all purchased Sonos for it's native multi-room, multi-provider capabilities which are far superior to AirPlay (see my prior post for my perspective on this).

If you cannot provide an option for us to disable it (which I bet the dev team can), it would be better for you remove AirPlay entirely until you can work this out with Apple.

I've just disconnected my Play1 and put it in a cupboard. Using old bluetooth and harddock speakers until I find something better. Maybe Sonos will wake up and do a software update. My Sonos 3 will be going the same way, but more difficult to disconnect.

I live by my iPhone as I live on three floors so it is the only "controller" that is sensible to use.

If the integrity of the software Sonos provided was as good as the physical hardware then it would be great!

I've just disconnected my Play1 and put it in a cupboard. Using old bluetooth and harddock speakers until I find something better. Maybe Sonos will wake up and do a software update. My Sonos 3 will be going the same way, but more difficult to disconnect.

I live by my iPhone as I live on three floors so it is the only "controller" that is sensible to use.

If the integrity of the software Sonos provided was as good as the physical hardware then it would be great!
Yes, it's entirely and wholly Sonos fault. Has nothing to do with the iOS side of things. Blimey, blaming Apple is like committing sacrilege.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

Because of this, the Sonos implementation of lock screen controls was built in a way that's no longer viable and with the launch of AirPlay 2 on Sonos.

And rather than delay the launch of AirPlay 2 to develop a new implementation, or allow users to opt-out of the AirPlay 2 launch, Sonos killed a feature we actually want for one we don't.

Presumably Sonos is working on fixing their implementation of the lock screen controls, or disabling AirPlay2 in favor of maintaining lock screen controls - is there an ETA for when we can get this capability back?

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